Lily Potter and the Third Realm
by NoahPhantom
Summary: Lily Luna Potter is one of the magical world's most prominent legal experts. As a student of law, she learned the right thing is not just hard to do, but hard to identify. When laws both magical and Muggle are brought into question, she'll have to figure it out fast. *Sequel to the Albus Potter series on this profile. Reading it first is not necessary but very highly recommended.*
1. Introduction and Prologue

**LILY POTTER AND THE THIRD REALM**

 **~o~**

 _ **MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW BEFORE READING:**_

 **This is the sequel story to the Albus Potter series on this profile (beginning with Albus Potter and the Global Revelation).**

 **Reading that series is not technically necessary. This being said, there will be many references to characters and events from that story. The magical theories introduced in the Global Revelation series will carry over. If anything crucial is used from the Albus series, I will try to include explanations, so that you're not forced to read seven books first to read this one. _That_ being said, I would of course still recommend the  Global Revelation series firs. It will make the experience of this book vastly richer, especially considering that this, the very first chapter of this book, references the very last event of the Albus series. If you read this chapter first, you'd know the end of the Albus series and it would vastly diminish the experience of that series if you ever decided you wanted to go back and read it.**

 **If you want to read both as intended, please go to our author profile and find Albus Potter and the Global Revelation to start the "Global Revelation" alternate Potterverse, of which this story is a part.**

 **If you are more invested in a story about Lily than a story about Albus, I will do my best to make sure the story can still be understood by anyone who reads it, not just followers of the original series.**

 **But since this story has only just begun, why not read the Albus series before reading this chapter and knowing its ending? You've got plenty of time; this story will definitely still be in progress when you get back. Again, it's not required to read that series, but it's highly recommended.**

* * *

 **Story Summary**

 **SPOILER ALERT: Proceeding past this point, whether in the summary or the chapter that follows, will spoil the ending of seven-book Albus series on this profile. There's no going back. If you plan on reading the Global Revelation Albus series, don't read any further!**

 _ **Lily's Quest**_

 **Lily Potter is twenty-seven years old. Eleven of those years were spent an innocent girl with no idea the depths of evil to which some people were capable of sinking, impatient for her opportunity to learn magic. She then spent four years at Hogwarts, one year fleeing and then fighting the Man in the Shadows, two years completing an accelerated education for her N.E.W.T.s, and four more years after that working on an advanced law degree at the Katarina Pinzel School of Sorcery in California.** **Her last few years at a law firm in Great Britain have been proving her a standout young professional.**

 **But she cannot get her mind off of the fact that the last twelve of her years were not shared with her brother Albus.**

 **She knows, deep inside, that he isn't dead. She's possessed by this idea, and she's done everything she can to prove it, so the rest of the world knows that her search is worthwhile. She's done the research, churned out the mathematics, studied advanced magic and things even less explainable than magic. Though Albus sealed the Abyssal Vortex from the inside, Lily plans to use modern magical theory to reach through the realms and bring him back from the abyss where he currently drifts alone.**

 **And she may be the best equipped person to do it. Not just because she's the one whom the experts in experimental magical theory come to when they're confused and she ends up rewriting their textbooks as a hobby, but because she misses her brother like crazy, and she'll stop at nothing until she finds him.**

 **But she faces her own foes, her own fears, and her own doubts as she struggles to balance her quest to find Albus with a difficulty that Albus also faced: the weight placed on her shoulders by her last name. Though the villains her father and brother faced are gone, there will always be dangers in the world, and anyone feeling fearful looks to her family to help. As a legal expert, she has learned that the right thing is not just hard to do, but also hard to identify. Having proven herself one of the magical world's most prominent lawyers, she will be forced to figure that out fast. A new challenge is arising, an immense legal battle brewing between worlds, with enemies to defeat in a much different and much more complicated setting than her family has ever experienced before.**

* * *

 _For those of you who aren't familiar, my name is Andy. Cody (also known as NoahPhantom, on whose profile we're uploading this story) wrote his Albus Potter series based off of an initial plotline I'd written, and I helped brainstorm and edit throughout the series. Now, I'm starting a story of my own to follow his. I'm uploading it on his profile because it's the profile that has the Albus series that comes before this. He is also editing it and helping me plot and plan, so this story is also credited to him in the same way he credits me in the Albus series. A big thank you to Cody for making all of this possible and encouraging me to try writing a story for myself!_

 _Lily Potter and the Third Realm will be uploaded as one story in two parts. Part one is entitled "Spellbound" and begins here. I will aim for uploads weekly or every other week, hopefully weekly._

 _This first upload is a flashback to an event referenced briefly in the epilogue of the series, where Lily mentions that Bill told her the story of Ephreneia, to show the beginning of Lily's journey to find Albus. There will be flashbacks throughout the series, regarding important events that took place between this book and the Albus series, or sometimes even earlier. They will be denoted by the title of "Lily Reminisces." I'll spend some time getting ahead in my writing, and then Chapter One will be uploaded next as the start of the uploading schedule. I can't wait to start my own journey with you!_

 _-Andy_

* * *

~o~

 _PROLOGUE_

 _The Tale of Ephreneia_

~o~

Cautiously, Lily cast her wand light forward. There wasn't a chance in hell that this could be what Bill said it was, and she wasn't about to get her hopes up.

"Where's the part you were talking about?" she asked.

She stepped closer to the far wall of the dark chamber to better distinguish the small pictures carved and painted around it. The colors were vibrant and striking despite thousands of years separating Lily from their original artists. She scanned the hieroglyphs for anything that might resemble a part of the story Bill described, trying to visually interpret it through guesswork. She wasn't feeling patient enough for Bill to translate it to her. Not when it came to Albus's situation. So perhaps she could parse enough of the meaning just from sight.

Or not. She begrudgingly waited for Bill to reveal the meaning.

"Here," Bill said, pointing to a low corner of the stone wall. A large cluster of symbols glared out from in an indent in the wall, next to which was a cracked and dislodged stone. "We think that the original artist was not supposed to write about this. He pulled a stone from the wall and carved the story behind it, then concealed it again with magic. We only discovered this half by chance, when we—"

"What does it say?" Lily interrupted.

Bill took a deep breath. Lily could tell that he was deciding whether to comment on her emotional state, but he didn't seem to want to deprive her any longer of the information she was so desperate to hear. He turned to the wall and began translating.

" _This is the tale of Ephreneia, the woman of the three realms._ "

He turned back to face Lily. "Ephreneia's legend has survived in other accounts. She was the most famous and possibly the most powerful witch in Egyptian—"

"Okay," Lily said tersely.

Bill turned back to the wall. If he judged her for her biting tone, he was holding back from showing it.

Lily hoped he knew that she appreciated it.

" _This is the tale of Ephreneia, the woman of the three realms. Many tales tell of the life of Ephreneia, but this is the tale of her departure from life. May it serve as a warning for both the living and the dead._

" _Ephreneia was the daughter of Nezzestes and Tepaphra, Grand Vizier to the Pharaoh, and the most learned sorceress of all times. Ephreneia knew of the greatest magic, but not even the greatest magic can bring the dead back from the Third Realm."_

Lily bit back her questions. Ephreneia of the Three Realms… The Third Realm… How much of this was myth from ancient Egyptian religion, and how much of it was based on actual magical fact that they somehow discovered?

Bill continued. _"At the age of forty, towards the end of her time in this world, Ephreneia lost her brother. She was driven mad with the grief and longing."_

Bill gave a look back at Lily that was anything but subtle. The knot of discomfort in her stomach stirred again, agitated by the unspoken accusation and the wasted seconds.

" _Though she strained and bled to build the empire higher than ever in her life, she almost collapsed the empire in her despair. Convinced he had been taken too soon, obsessed with reclaiming him from the afterlife, she spent years trying to break through to the Third Realm to find him._

" _One day, she succeeded in breaking down a wall between realms, but it was not the realm she sought. She instead broke through to the Second Realm, the place of knowledge and divinity."_

Lily stiffened. "That sounds like…"

"The Abyssal Vortex?" Bill guessed. "That's what we thought. That's what it sounded like, anyway. But I'll continue. _In this realm, Ephreneia was enveloped in wisdom and led to understanding. She came to accept that there was no way to reclaim the man that was her brother, and she left the second realm intending to carry on without him."_

"This is a joke, right?" Lily demanded, a flame building up inside her the likes of which she'd never experienced against her own family. "You're not trying to tell me to stop looking for him, are you? Because that's never going to happen. Albus isn't dead like Ephreneia's brother. Albus is lost within the 'Second Realm', yes, but he's still _alive._ I know it, and I'm going to prove it, and I'm going to find him and bring him back to us."

"That's not the end of Ephreneia's story," Bill explained calmly.

Lily took another deep breath, but she let it out through her nose and waved for Bill to continue.

" _But Ephreneia was tormented by his memory and succumbed to depression. She wanted to live on without him, but she found it too difficult. Seeking help from the pure wisdom found in the Second Realm, she found no answer to assuage her emotions, for emotion is the substance of the Third Realm._

" _Ephreneia traveled to the Second Realm once more with High Priest Kambulkar of the South, and called a prayer to the Goddesses Isis and Hathor. Kambulkar watched over her as she offered a fount of purest love to the Goddesses. Upon her prayer, she was transported to the Third Realm. The goddesses took mercy, and summoned her there to be together with her brother for all of time."_

Bill looked back to Lily, a small smile breaking through the severity he had been wearing throughout their trip. "You know what this could mean, right?"

"No," Lily said, but her heart raced in anticipation of the detail she was missing. "What does it mean?"

"The 'fount of purest love'," Bill said. "The author means a Eucoeur. Other tales have told us that Ephreneia had possession of a Eucoeur, but we'd never found it in her tomb or heard any stories suggesting she'd used it. As it wasn't buried in her tomb or anywhere else… we can assume she took it with her into the Second Realm, the Abyssal Vortex. And apparently, activating a Eucoeur in the Second Realm had some strange secondary effect… it transported her into the Third Realm."

"So she offered a Eucoeur, and she was taken to be with her brother?" Lily asked. "What does that mean? What does that have to do with me?"

"Lily, _Albus_ brought a Eucoeur into the Abyssal Vortex, too," Bill prompted. "And if he used it in the Second Realm…"

"…he may have been transported to the Third Realm," Lily continued, and her heart lunged out of her chest with every beat. "So even though the Abyssal Vortex is sealed forever… if he used his Eucoeur…"

"Then we would be able look in the Third Realm instead," Bill finished.

"And he had to have used his Eucoeur!" Lily exclaimed, following her heart's lead and jumping up and down, her thrilled voice echoing all over the chamber. "The endless knowledge of the Abyssal Vortex would have told him how to use the Eucoeur to get transported to the Third Realm! He's not in the sealed Second Realm—we just have to find a way to get to the Third!"

Though she had always insisted she would find a way to break through the seal on the Abyssal Vortex and get to Albus, she had begun to seriously fear in the two years since his disappearance that there might never be a way. Albus had, after all, purposefully sealed it from the inside to try and ensure that no one could ever again access the ultimate power within. And even if she could open it up again, that might have unwittingly unleashed the evil that Albus had sealed inside the Vortex with him. But if Albus had been transported out of the Vortex…

"Lily, this is just one story on one wall," Bill warned. "Remember not to look too far into this until you have more facts."

"I'll get the facts," Lily breathed. "All the facts. And then I'll get Albus back." At Bill's concerned glance, she pointed at the hieroglyphs. "Whether or not this is true."

She paced forward, stopped, and reached a hand out until it was almost on the wall. Almost touching the pictures, just as she imagined she was almost reaching Albus.

If the story written here turned out to be true… she would be reaching him soon.


	2. Ch1: Potter and Quayle, Attorneys at Law

**Writing is going slow, unfortunately. I'm rather busy at school. But I am still writing. I'm not sure how fast I can upload, but I'll keep you updated on that as I post more chapters. For now, here's Chapter 1!**

* * *

CHAPTER ONE

Potter and Quayle, Attorneys at Magical Law

 _December 17, 2035_

~O~

With a gasp, Lily woke up in the dark. Drops from an earlier rainstorm tapped a gentle beat on the sill outside her bedroom window, calming her racing heart.

It took her a while to regain her senses, longer to regain her thoughts. The dream that she had just had, about Bill and the hieroglyphs, was actually a recurring memory. It had taunted her in every waking hour, and tormented her in many nights as well.

At the time, ironically, she had been worried that she was only dreaming that Bill had told her how to save Albus. The first time hadn't been a dream, but the memory of that moment would become the substance of her dreams for eight haunting years. It was amazing to realize that she had spent longer on her search for Albus than at Hogwarts, or at the Katarina Pinzel School of Sorcery for her law degree, or as a defense attorney at _Potter and Quayle, Attorneys at Magical Law_.

Yet Bill had since lost faith in Lily's quest to find her brother. Everyone in her family had lost faith. Except her.

She had reached hands out to every family member, every one of her friends and Albus's friends. Of course they had offered to help; of course they had followed through on those promises. But it had been more than a decade since she'd started asking people to help her, and she had nothing to show for her efforts except mathematical scribbles. No one else in her friends or family had been able to help her write them, and no one else could understand them either. She assured them that the magical theory checked out, and that finding Albus was not just possible but inevitable. But the theory was so advanced that everyone felt useless trying to work with her. No one but her felt like any progress had been made in twelve full years. No matter how hard Lily tried to explain the calculations, to most people they were cold, confusing, unfeeling symbols on parchment. They were as far as could be from warm, loving, personable Albus. So her friends and family ended up with the impression that the search was nowhere close to him.

As much as Lily hated to admit it, they were right in some capacity. The theory was one thing. Putting it into action was another. She had become quite the linguistic contortionist since earning her law degree, but even she had trouble convincing herself of her position whenever her family confronted her about it.

"Lily, it's consuming you," her father would say. "It's all you think about. And I know how much you care about him—believe me. When my godfather died, when your Uncle Fred died, when anyone I knew left me… I wanted so badly to believe that there was some way to bring them back."

Lily would try hard not to interrupt him to observe that Albus was not _dead_. "But this is different," she would say. "This isn't the same, because there _is_ a way to bring him back. I've proven it."

And she _had_ proven it. Extensively, and in multiple ways. She had her work checked by the greatest mathematicians and Arithmancers of their time. All of them agreed: theoretically, it was possible to open a portal to the Third Realm, just as there had been natural and artificial portals to the Second Realm, also known as the Abyssal Vortex. In fact, there may have been natural portals to the Third Realm in the past, closing fast due to their inherent instability. Another theory that Lily had managed to prove was that it was possible to keep open a Third Realm portal artificially.

"Yes, it may very well be _possible,_ " Albus's friend Lucas would say, "but I've talked with Doctor Bringmann as well. She said she told you that it was _possible,_ but that it would take centuries or longer before we have the magical and technological capability to break into a completely unknown dimension." He would take a deep breath before continuing, so he could pretend the next part was tough for him to say. "I worked with you for a very long time, and all we got for all that effort was a stack of papers saying the thing we set out to do is _probably_ doable, but not for a thousand years."

But hadn't Albus spent his entire life proving that the impossible was possible? Albus's sole focus in the last year of his life was defeating the Man in the Shadows. Despite all that was against him, his dedication overcame the odds. She had to stay as dedicated as he had been, to help her brother defy expectations one more time.

"Lily," her brother James would say. "You're killing yourself over this. It's kept you from work. It's kept you from eating and sleeping. I've already seen the stress make you sick, little sister, and you can't spend your whole life like this. Everyone wants Albus to come back so he can live the years he lost. But would he really want you to deprive yourself of your own life in the process?"

At least a few people were working along with her, if only because they were getting paid. Two years ago, Lily had brought together four of the best magical researchers of their time to see if they could figure out how to create a portal that led to the so-called Third Realm. She had made headway with a wealthy investor named Haynsly and rented out an old lab from MagiCraft & Associates. MagiCraft was a defunct business that was pushed out of the market by Spellbound, Inc., the newest up-and-comer in modern magical technology. The lab was very modern, since the company's failure had been recent, and they sold the premises to Lily at a low price.

She would be headed to that lab this afternoon, in fact, after the trial she had in the morning. It was time for the semiannual meeting with Haynsly, so that she and her research team could secure funding for the next half-year to continue the search for Albus, despite the grueling time and labor that had already left so many of her friends and family feeling hopeless.

Lily prided herself on her logical mind. Yet, though all of the signs and all of the people said that this was not a logical endeavor, she could not allow herself to believe that. Perhaps it was fate that Albus had purportedly landed himself in what was informally known as the "realm of emotions," because it wasn't entirely her logic that told her Albus could still be found. It was her emotions.

Some of her own family had chastised her when she once admitted this. One idiot she'd dated for a month and a half had even told her that it was very "female" of her to think that way (hence their relationship not reaching two months). But she was so thoroughly convinced, and though it wasn't logical, it didn't seem irrational. At times, she had to wonder if Albus was watching her from the realm of emotions. Sending her positive feelings with some power he'd found there. Chasing away her uncertainties and keeping her convinced that she could find him.

Lily glanced over to the clock next to her bed. Three thirteen in the morning. Still nearly four hours before she had to get up to prepare for the trial of her last case at Potter and Quayle.

But her mind had been buzzing too long. The possibility of sleep had vanished, dispelled from her mind to make room for her furious daily deliberation about how much time she should be investing into her research on the Third Realm.

It was time to do what she always did when this happened. She took her wand from the small pocket attached to the leg of her desk, and flicked a small ball of light into the ceiling. Settling into the chair, she took out the latest in a library-sized stack of books she was poring over. This one was entitled _The Apparition Mission: What's Beyond the Tube,_ about a research team's exploration of how Apparition worked. It seemed to be a process that took the user through a higher dimension. Victoire had recommended it to her. Anything that regarded alternate dimensions was automatically of interest, in case it held some clue. There was literature out there which was more relevant to the Third Realm specifically than this was, but Lily had already consumed anything more relevant, and so whatever else that could possibly hold answers was fair game.

She opened the book to where she'd left off, and pulled a mug from her drawer which instantly filled with hot coffee. She read and sipped, until her alarm clock walked over and tapped her gently on the shoulder.

"Yes, yes," she assured it, "I'm awake."

The alarm clock shrugged and walked back to the edge of the desk, jumping the small gap to her bedside table and settling back down.

Lily pulled out one of her nicer suits, and sat down on the bed to slip on the pants.

Suddenly, she was being roused out of a sleep she never realized she had slipped into. Her alarm clock was standing over her face, poking her cheek, and wagging the other finger condescendingly.

"Right," she mumbled, and lifted her head off of the bed. Waking up at three o'clock in the morning did not agree with her, even though she should have been used to it by now; it had happened several times already in this week alone. She stumbled out of the room as she slipped on her dress shirt, and she Apparated into _Potter and Quayle, Attorneys at Magical Law,_ the office in Dillied Alley that she shared with Bonita Quayle.

She crashed into the room violently, rolling sideways into a metal cabinet. The stack of papers on top of the cabinet shifted and tilted off the edge, cascading down on top of her.

"Goodness, child!" cried Bonita, Lily's partner in crime.

The cofounder of Potter and Quayle rushed towards Lily and clucked her tongue at Lily's predicament. She slid her hands under Lily's arms and helped lifted Lily to her feet, still remarkably strong for her age. Lily waved her off. "I'm okay. I'm fine. Nothing big."

"It _is_ something big," Bonita disputed, shaking her head, sending her long black curls flying. She brushed the dust off of the shoulder of Lily's suit and scoffed, pursing her lips. Her dark brown eyes rolled up to the ceiling as she let loose a deep groan. "Look at you. Hair all in a tizzy. Wrinkles all over your outfit. And drowsy Apparition! You can lose focus and get severely Splinched that way."

Bonita waved a wand; Lily's outfit ironed itself out with a pleasantly warm sensation, and her hair tied into a neat bun. Lily huffed. "I was going to do that here," she protested.

" _Chica,_ " Bonita tutted. "You cannot go on like this. Burning that midnight oil and burning yourself out!"

"I'm not burned out!" Lily asserted. "I just Apparated too soon after waking up."

"Did you eat breakfast? Shower?"

"I was…"

"Don't tell me you were going to do _that_ here, too," Bonita laughed, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Do you want me to Apparate you back to your apartment for a while?"

"No," Lily insisted. "I'm fine, Bonnie, I just need a moment." She gently slid her shoulder out from under Bonita's hand, and walked over to her desk.

"Lily Luna," Bonita sighed. "This is our very last week. You're leaving to start work at the Ministry of Magic, and I am retiring. I won't be around to slap you awake after Friday!"

"I don't need to be slapped awake!" Lily said as she sat down.

"How long did you sleep last night?"

Lily paused. "I went to sleep at midnight and woke up at seven," she said, opting for the technical truth.

"And, in between?" Bonita asked, reading her like a Lily would read a book on the Third Realm.

"Maybe I woke up at some point in between," Lily said, struggling to force down a telltale yawn. She opened up the green folder on top of her desk that contained her notes on her current case. "But I'm really quite all right, Bonnie. I wish you'd stop fretting."

"I wish you'd _start,_ " Bonita said. "Lily—where was the scuffmark?"

Lily looked up from her green folder. "The kitchen."

"And what size shoe was it?"

"Men's shoe size nine," said Lily. "Ozzie Scabra's shoe size is ten and a half. The four usual members of the household had shoe sizes of a men's eleven and three women with two sevens and a seven and a half." She turned back to her notes and started sifting through them again. "See? Nothing wrong. I'm ready for the trial."

Bonita took her coat off of a hanger near the door. "I was just going out for coffee. Do you want some?"

"Had some."

"When, you little lawyer? Yesterday?"

"Four hours ago."

Bonita groaned at the ceiling. " _¡Dios mío!_ I'm getting some goddamn donuts in here."

"Thank you," Lily said, and Bonita nodded, finally smiling at her before turning to Disapparate. In the five minutes that she was out, Lily reviewed her itinerary for the case.

 _The Seven Sacred Steps to every arrest in AMCAT,_ Professor Aplin's voice rang in her head.

She still recalled her American professor's engaging introductory law course from her days at the Katarina Pinzel law program. Criminal trials in the magical world were consistent within the countries included in the Alliance of Magical Countries and Territories, or AMCAT. A criminal trial in the magical courts of Britain would be the same as a criminal trial in the magical courts of the United States. That had been drilled into her head by her first law professor, Danuel Aplin, with whom she had stayed in contact, and it was the reason she was fully familiar with the laws at home even though her law degree had been earned overseas.

The first three "sacred steps" were not her area of expertise. They regarded arrest, detainment, and possible release on bail. Then came the defense attorneys like Lily: steps four through seven were finding legal representation for the accused, determining the evidence, preparing the case, and appearing in court. Or, as Professor Aplin had put it:

 _The seven steps of the jail:_

 _Busting, booking, bail,_

 _Counseling, evidence,_

 _Seeking the precedents,_

 _Telling the jury the tale._

She would always remember this little jingle. She knew she would never forget it, because it was very annoying and she had already tried on several occasions. Aplin had ensured that it was ingrained so deeply in every student's head that not even a Memory Charm would be likely to dig it out. She still remembered the time he'd pulled that poor Elroy kid up to the front and made him explain to everyone why his answer on a pop quiz was wrong when he mixed up the order: why it was so important to determine counsel _before_ finalizing the collection of evidence.

But it was a good thing he'd drilled it that far into their brains, because Lily was going to use it in this trial.

Bonita Apparated back into the office with a _crack,_ and trotted over to Lily's desk. She deposited a bag containing two frosted donuts onto the desk, and placed a finger on Lily's nose. "Eat, child."

"I'm not a child," Lily groaned.

"You're younger than my stepchild, you're a child to me," Bonita countered as she always did. "Eat. You know as well as I do how foolish you will look up there if you're struggling to stay awake, even if your defense is good." She stood over Lily for a few seconds. "For God's sake, girl, eat! Don't make me Imperius you."

Lily dug her hand into the bag, not the slightest bit concerned about the frosting she was smearing all over her fingers in the process. "I don't know what I'll do without you, Bonita."

"Oh, whatever happens, you'll survive," Bonita chuckled. "As long as you eat, that is."

"Ah AM ee'eeng!" Lily complained through the first bite of the donut, shaking her head. "Mrrln's blls."

Bonita wagged her finger, never having been a fan of harsh language. Lily laughed into her donut, choking for a moment before she got it down to make room for the next bite.

People had asked Lily on many occasions if it was strange that her closest partner was so far from her in nearly every demographic. Bonita was black and Hispanic, thirty-six years older than Lily, a very religious person, and a native Spanish speaker from an island in the Caribbean. She had been very poor as a child, and was raised as a male before a transition to female; she had gotten married late in life, and gained a stepdaughter older than Lily. And their personalities were wildly different. Bonita was motherly and doting, cautious and patient, and took situations as they came to her. Lily was ambitious and eager, always rushing and always balancing eleven different tasks at once. Unfortunately, Lily never did poorly enough to warrant slowing herself down, and she continued to tackle everything in life with her full force.

When Lily had met her almost eight years ago, Bonita's partner was Kevin Cherrygrove. Lily had been an assistant at Cherrygrove and Quayle for five years. At first, it was to help fund her education. Later, the part-time job simply became an excuse to put off finding a real one. It was technically a "job," but she only had the responsibilities of a part-time position. That meant more time in the laboratory working to find Albus. She fully admitted this to herself, but not to her parents.

Then, nearly three years ago, at about the same time that Lily's parents were about to come down hard on her about finding a full-time job, Cherrygrove had retired. Bonita asked Lily if she wanted to become the new partner, and rename the firm to "Potter and Quayle" (since "Quayle and Potter" didn't roll off the tongue quite as nicely). Lily graciously accepted, and she had proven in the many cases since that time that she was already one of the best. She tried not to use her name as a crutch, although it did attract a lot of clientele, for which Bonita did not complain. Lily knew she couldn't help the associations people gave to her name, but she knew she could build her own reputation if she worked hard enough. Soon enough, people were flocking to their practice for legal representation not just because Lily was a Potter, but because she was _Lily_ Potter. And people knew Lily Potter could get you out of any jam—as long as you didn't deserve to be in it.

When Lily took Cherrygrove's place, she had asked herself some of the same questions about how different she was from Bonita. But it was actually those differences which made their team as strong as possible. To have such different outlooks contributing to the same judgment… The two of them together had a very wide perspective. And Bonita helped Lily to slow her pace, though Lily had also helped Bonita learn how to assert herself more.

Here today, the assistance was clearly one-sided, as Bonita placed a cup of coffee under Lily's lips and ordered her to nourish herself. Lily knew Bonita had done a lot more of the helping over the years, and she didn't know if she'd ever be able to repay the woman for all that she'd done. Lily was going to miss her friend when she left to work for the Ministry. But the offer Lily had received was an opportunity she couldn't pass up. Plus, Bonita had been ready to retire for some time, having secured a nice retirement plan from her beginnings as a public defender. When Bonita had stayed in the business after Cherrygrove left, she hadn't actually needed to keep working. Forming Potter and Quayle wasn't necessary for Bonita; it had been her way to help Lily get her foot in the door of the legal world.

She was still helping Lily get her footing even today.

"Better?" Bonita asked, after Lily had finished a long sip from the coffee.

"Better already," Lily replied, before digging back into the donut.

"Good," Bonita said. "Can I stop playing babysitter?"

Lily nodded. Bonita tousled her hair and left, sitting down at her own desk.

Bonita had a case on Wednesday, and then after they finished the last vestiges of the paperwork, Potter and Quayle would be no more.

That was to say, the _company_ would be no more. Potter and Quayle as the _friendship_ would remain for life, and Lily suspected she would be needing Bonita's advice a lot in the uncertain future of life as a Ministry drone. A well-paid drone, yes, and she expected she would still get to do good in the world. But a drone nonetheless.

None of that, of course, was what she needed to be thinking about now, and she turned back to the case at hand.

Ozzie Scabra. He'd attended Hogwarts, a few years before James. A felon once before, in a minor offense: a duel in Knockturn Alley with a shopkeeper over the price of a set of Oozing Jewels, just a few months prior. Hence his connection to this crime: the jewels in question had been later purchased by the Lark family, whose house had just been robbed. The jewels were stolen and Scabra was immediately picked up on suspicion. When the jewels were rediscovered in his apartment, he was detained awaiting trial. But in that time, he had managed to make contact with Lily, and she took the case when he repeatedly insisted that he was innocent. It wasn't the desperate act that most criminals put on. It was a desperate man who truly didn't deserve what he'd gotten.

"I've never been in that house," he had griped. "The shopkeeper's mad I broke a few of his toys during the duel. He set me up, I'm telling you!"

He said that he knew he'd done a stupid thing last summer. He was drunk when it had happened and he'd done some damage. But the justice system had handed down the proper punishment for it and he'd served his time for that crime. He didn't do _this_ crime, so he didn't deserve any more time.

The scuff mark proved it.

Or, it probably did. The truth was, Lily didn't know whether or not the scuff mark did. But it probably did. And that was enough: innocent until proven guilty. Even if Scabra ended up as the real culprit, it would still go against AMCAT protocol to convict him, given the complete disregard for—

The folder she was holding suddenly shifted from green to red. That meant that Scabra was summoning her from his holding cell; he must have wanted to talk to her before the trial.

Bonita noticed. "Are you fully awake?"

Lily shook as much sleep from her eyes as she could. Unfortunately, she couldn't use her usual favorite spell to snap her brain into alertness. It wasn't exactly healthy, but besides that, attorneys weren't allowed to have any active potions or spells that could enhance their acumen when they appeared in court.

"I'll head over, then," she said, and Bonita clapped hands on both of her shoulders before she set herself to Apparate.

"I have faith in you," Bonita said compressing Lily's shoulders to accentuate her point. "In this case, and in your budding career. I wish I could go, but I'll be here when you get out of the trial. Let me know how it went, right as soon as you finish!"

"I will," Lily promised. "The sappy goodbye will come later. We still have the office leased to the end of the week."

"Then go out, and save your one last client," Bonita said with a smile. "Before you switch to the other side and start putting them away, that is."

Lily smiled back, and Bonita took the hands off her shoulders. Lily twisted in the air and Apparated to the Capp County Magical Penitentiary.

As all visitors did, Lily appeared in the waiting room. All Apparitions in the area were redirected into the waiting room, so that no one was Apparating into the prison complex. Lily wondered if that might be in her book about Apparition, and whether spells that affected Apparitions were of a certain category that could reach past the usual three dimensions. That could be an intriguing subject to study, in case there were ramifications into studies on the Third Realm.

Into her head popped her mother's voice: _"Lily, I swear, you can't think about anything without going on a mental birdwalk into that Third Realm."_

Well, it was true. And that wouldn't be a problem, but she couldn't think about the Third Realm without everyone's voices popping into her head to remind her of the unlikelihood of her success.

A teal-robed grizzled guard gestured for Lily to step outside the waiting area through what looked like a Muggle metal detector. "Please step forward, ma'am…"

"Lily Potter," Lily said, placing her wand in a box that passed through a machine on the side of the hallway. "Defense attorney with Ozymandias Scabra. He's requested a meeting before the trial."

"We understand. Step through…"

Lily walked past the sensor, which did not react, as Lily had known not to bring any other magical items with her. The guard lifted his hand and held it up a foot from Lily's face, then moved it up and down in the space in front of her body, checking for other magical artifacts that the sensor may not have detected.

"Proceed," the guard said, apparently satisfied that Lily wasn't here to break out all of the prisoners.

Lily walked through the hall, trying to keep her gaze steadily forward. There were a few whistles and catcalls as she walked.

"Over here, lady! I need some, er, counseling…"

"Check out the redhead! Whose is she?"

"Oi—Miss Lawyer! I've been a bad, bad boy…"

Lily did her best to ignore it, and progressed through the cold gray stone hall. She passed through the open door on the other end, where Scabra was sitting at a table, a magic-resistant cuff around his ankle.

His naturally chaotic black hair was pulled back, tied into a short ponytail with a strand of fabric he'd found somewhere. He sat in his chair with his legs wide apart, taking up a lot of space to try and pretend he still had some semblance of masculine authority. This was ridiculous, given his bright orange jumpsuit with tight-fitting yellow gloves and boots which suppressed any attempts at wandless magic. He had an obviously false smirk on his face when he noticed Lily, and he jutted out his chin to greet her instead of saying words like a normal, socially apt human.

Lily rolled her eyes. It wasn't her place to judge someone, or refuse to defend them in court just because they weren't pleasant people. The law applied the same to saints and serial killers. And in her experience, even saints could be serial killers.

"Morning, Ozzie," Lily said. "Privacy, please?" she called out to the guard at the doorway.

The guard flicked her wand at the table when Lily took the chair opposite Scabra, and a set of soundproof glass walls faded into view around them.

Lily placed the folder on the table and folded her fingers. "What's on your mind?" she asked Scabra. She was genuinely curious as to what he wanted to talk about now, just an hour before the trial.

"The stupid bloody legal system that puts me in this hellhole without even being sure that I actually committed the bloody crime," Scabra scowled. "This is inhumane. Can I sue for cruel and unusual punishment when I'm acquitted? For putting an innocent man through this?"

"We went over this last time," Lily said. "No. You cannot sue. And that's not my area of expertise anyway."

"So you could be wrong," Scabra said. "Since it's not your area of expertise, you might not know whether I could sue about this?"

"You _could,_ but it wouldn't amount to anything except meaningless paperwork and expenses on your part," Lily said. "We went over this last time."

"Yes, yes," Scabra said. "I, er. What's the plan for the trial again?"

Lily looked at him in disbelief. "You've been through it before," Lily said. "It's going to be the same as last time. The trial will proceed with roll call, summary of charges, interrogation, witness testimony, and verdict." Scabra nodded. "Roll call is what it sounds like. Summary of charges, you will plead categorically in the negative."

Scabra blinked, obviously lost on the multisyllabic words.

"You will say 'no' a lot when they ask you if you did the things you did not do," Lily gently explained. "Interrogation and witness testimony, you will leave to me. That's my job. As we discussed, you will say nothing. Pretend I'm interrogating you now: will you say anything?"

"No," Scabra said.

"Wrong!" Lily shouted; Scabra jumped. "No. You don't even respond to a question like that. When you are being interrogated, you will say _nothing._ Do you understand?"

Scabra silently nodded.

"No!" Lily growled, slamming her hand down on the table. "Not even a nod or shake of the head. You will say and do nothing during the interrogation. Okay?"

Scabra gulped, but made no other movement.

"Good," Lily said. "Remember that. Interrogation and witness testimony, don't do anything that could be construed as you making a concrete statement about anything. You can't take back anything that happens in court. If you say you weren't around the area at all that day, and then you remember that you were at a bar nearby and they find that out, then you've been caught lying in court. You do not want anything like that to happen, so you will let me do the talking. Understood?"

Scabra said nothing.

"I'm not interrogating you anymore," Lily said, "but good job. Understand?"

"Yes."

"So there's the roll call, which you don't need to worry about. Enumeration of charges, during which will be you saying 'no' to a list of things you didn't do. If they ask you about something you _did_ do, of course, you will say yes. That's the only part you need to worry about. You will leave interrogation and witness testimony to me entirely. And the verdict will be not guilty. That's the way the trial will progress." Lily leaned forward in her seat. "And we went through _this_ last time as well."

"Yes," Scabra said. "I just wanted to. You know. Make sure. Be prepared."

"Is that really the only reason you brought me here?"

Scabra was starting to blush and sweat. He didn't seem to be used to someone talking down to him like this, especially not a female, and it seemed to be upsetting his fragile mind that he wasn't the one in control. His dark eyes fell to his twiddling thumbs.

He took a deep breath. "I just…" His shoulders tensed. "I also wanted to ask you. If I go back to prison… my…" He took a deeper breath, and tensed his shoulders tighter, as well as his lips. Lily's keen gaze picked up that he actually seemed to be trying to stop them from twitching. She raised an eyebrow high.

"My daughter's heart would break," he said, finally. "And if you can't—" He stopped himself, and restarted. "If I end up going back to prison. Can you please… make sure my daughter knows that I really am innocent?"

Lily softened the harsh demeanor she was putting on. She waited until Scabra looked up and met her gaze, and she nodded. "I will," she promised.

Scabra nodded back, and then returned to the careful examination of his thumbs. Lily waited for some time before deciding that this meant Scabra had said what he wanted to say, and she lifted herself from the chair. The guard flicked away the walls, and Lily gathered her folder and stepped out to leave the prison complex and Apparate to the Ministry. She would wait there until she was needed, in a little over an hour.

She reached the doors leading out of the prison, was scanned once again, and exited. Before Apparating, she stepped over to the wall and leaned against it for a moment to think.

The disposition of the accused wasn't supposed to matter in the application of the law and in the execution of her duties. But that single sentence had moved her. She felt a strong emotional connection to this man's verdict, and sorely hoped she had gotten enough sleep to be fully capable in the trial. She had to give a father back to his daughter.


	3. LR1: The Seven Steps of the Jail

**Thanksgiving Break is here for me and I finally have a life again! With studying for my PhD, being a TA, and being involved in two musicals with the student clubs at UConn, writing has been very very slow going! But I have a few chapters, so I'll upload those over this break as I also try to get as far ahead as I can.**

 **This is one of the "Lily Reminisces" between-chapter snippets, and it's based on the little rhyme she sang in her head last chapter. I'll upload the next chapter tomorrow.**

* * *

 _Lily Reminisces_

 _The Seven Steps of the Jail_

Friday, September 3, 2026

~O~

"Overall, I wasn't too terribly disappointed with the results of the first quiz," Professor Aplin called from the front of the room. "But of course… there were a few exceptions." He cleared his throat and shuffled the stack of papers he was holding, glancing at the name on the first one. "Mr. Elroy?"

Sitting next to Lily was a thin, nervous-looking young man who looked up sharply. He didn't look too eager to find out why he was wanted, given that his name had been announced directly after an expression of disappointment.

"Um. Yes?" Elroy chirped softly.

"Elroy," Professor Aplin said, "do you remember the limerick we all repeated together regarding the seven steps of the jail?"

Elroy heated up. "Um. Maybe not—completely."

"I put it in a limerick to help you all memorize it completely," Professor Aplin sighed. "On the question about the Seven Sacred Steps to every arrest in AMCAT, this is what you wrote. _'Arrest, detainment, release on bail if possible, inspecting the evidence, determining legal representation for the accused, preparing the case, and appearing in court.'_ Does anyone know why this is incorrect?"

"Who cares," Elroy mumbled to himself.

"Did you ask who cares?" Professor Aplin queried. "Good question. Let's find that out."

Elroy had been blushing, but now he paled. "What?"

Professor Aplin turned his head and gestured to his right ear. He might have been born without a right ear, or else something had happened to it during his life, as it seemed to be made of solid silver. It wiggled and moved like a normal one, but apparently it was the ear equivalent of a magical eye. He had heard Elroy's near-silent mutter, even though he was standing in front of a giant lecture hall and Elroy was in the middle.

"Nothing that happens in the classroom gets past this," he said, tapping his ear.

The lecture hall went silent. The boy and girl in front of Lily, who had been groping each other the entire lesson, looked at each other nervously.

"So, Elroy," Professor Aplin said, rubbing his hands together. "Let's learn why everyone in this classroom should care about the exact order of the Seven Sacred Steps." He turned to his teaching assistant. "Bellica—if you wouldn't mind assisting me in the demonstration? Everyone, this is Bellica Wallace, part-time teaching assistant and part-time intern in the British Ministry of Magic in the Magical Law Consultation Office."

"Of course I wouldn't mind," Bellica said, putting down her clipboard.

"Bellica—you've been arrested on account of murdering Professor Aplin in the middle of Jessie's Diner."

"That's unfortunate," Bellica said.

"Please find some legal representation. In the meantime, we've inspected all of the evidence, and all of it points to you."

"I'd like to have my own forensics team allowed to inspect as well," Bellica said, frowning.

"Why? The evidence has been inspected and the crime scene was already taken down. We couldn't shut down the restaurant forever. It was killing the owners' livelihoods to keep it all closed off."

Bellica tried to hold back a smile, seeing where her professor was headed. "It doesn't matter. The owners could be refunded for their losses by the AMCAT Triple-P, the Proper Procedure Program. But Britain, where I live, and America, where I'm being accused of the crime, are both a part of AMCAT. Proper Procedure means a forensics team funded by the defense should have the opportunity to inspect the evidence as well."

"Why?" Professor Aplin pressed. "It's the same evidence. It says the same thing. Wait," he added before Bellica continued. "Does anyone else want to continue? Act as Bellica's legal representation. What is the problem here?"

Lily raised a hand high. She wasn't the only one, but she was the one looking the most confident about it. Professor Aplin noticed, and he gestured to her. Next to her, Elroy shrank back in his seat.

"The process has safeguards to protect citizens in case there's any conflict of interest on the part of the government," Lily explained, confidently but not arrogantly. "The preliminary forensics team examining the evidence is funded by the government. That's the same entity doing the prosecution—they have a vested interest in finding evidence to convict the accused. One would expect them to be viewing the evidence through that lens, as they are perceived as more capable at their job if they assist more convictions. Evidence can be subjective at times. A blood stain that looks to one team like it was from a knife wound could look to another team like it was from a curse. Similar charms can look too similar to tell a difference during _Priori Incantatem._ If a forensics team is looking for a conviction, it can affect which interpretation of the evidence they see. To balance the scales, the defense should have the ability to hire a team to examine the evidence for themselves. Both teams can present findings at the trial; that eliminates the possibility that the jury could hear a very one-sided opinion on what the evidence shows."

"Best answer to that question that I've ever heard," Professor Aplin said with a discernible tone of appreciation. "Everybody understand that? I hope so, because I don't know if I could phrase it any better. That's why the finalization of the evidence collection comes _after_ the legal counsel is determined. Elroy, does _evidence, counseling_ rhyme with _seeking the precedents?_ No—it's _counseling, evidence, seeking the precedents._ Otherwise, the defendant's right to a fair trial has been violated, and unless there is a 'compelling overabundance of evidence to support a conviction,' the defendant is immediately cleared of all charges and released. That's why this matters, that's why I made a clever little rhyme for it, and that's why you should care. Any other questions?"

Elroy jerked his head back and forth.

"Good," Professor Aplin said. "Then we will proceed."

At the end of the class, Lily was stopped by Professor Aplin's teaching assistant before she left.

"It's only been the first week of class," Bellica said, "and I can already tell you're a standout."

Lily smiled. "I appreciate that." She stuck out her hand. "Lily Potter."

"Bellica Wallace," Bellica said. "Hey, you're the only Brit in this class apart from myself, so I feel we should keep each other in mind. If you ace this class as I expect you will, you'll have no problems in this program. Aplin is one of the hardest noses you'll come up against in the staff, but that's his job—to weed out the unworthy early."

Lily chuckled. "How long are you around—how long do you have left in the law program?"

"This is my last semester," Bellica said. "Soon I'll be taking up at the Ministry full time. Hey, if you're ever looking for a job there, keep in touch, and I may be able to help you out if I'm still there!"

Lily laughed. "I appreciate the offer a lot," she said. "To be honest, I don't see myself ever working in the Ministry. But I'll keep it in mind!"


	4. Ch2: DMLE v Scabra

CHAPTER TWO

DMLE v. Scabra

 _December 17, 2035_

~O~

"The accused being present," Chief Prosecutor Ianus said, "let us begin."

Lily looked to Scabra, sitting next to her at the small desk in the center of the courtroom, and gave a reassuring nod. Scabra turned and faced blankly ahead. Now that they were actually in court, the prospect of being wrongfully convicted and separated from his daughter was facing him down. It seemed to be weighing far more heavily on his mind than she'd seen before. She hoped he wouldn't crack.

The thought of Scabra's family made Lily glance over to her own family, who had just entered. They were settling into the seating behind the defendant's stand which was open to the public. James was working, of course—he had been Head Auror for just under three years. But her parents were here, and so were Hugo, Rose, and Rose's longtime boyfriend. Her mother gave her a smile and a small wave. Her father compressed his lips and his shoulders as he tried to smile like his wife. Harry was never comfortable in this room; he'd had some unsettling experiences in here. But he was here nonetheless, watching Lily's last trial for Potter and Quayle, which she very much appreciated. Hugo looked around the courtroom with interest, as it was his first time in here since the Battle for the Ministry of Magic. Rose's mind already seemed to be buzzing as she began to evaluate what was going on in the court.

Chief Prosecutor Cellen Ianus adjusted his glasses on his lengthy nose, and peered at Scabra through suspicious eyelids. He next turned his gaze to Lily, who met his stare. His eyebrows—the only hairs on his head—settled down in a challenging glare. There was a rumor that Ianus never blinked once during a trial. Lily had been a defense attorney for thirty-two months now, and she had yet to disprove that rumor.

There had been a time, not that long before Lily was born, where the Minister for Magic was also Chief Prosecutor. But as time had told, this could lead to problems, and the powers were separated. Ianus had been elected the Chief Prosecutor way back when the position was first created nearly forty years ago. The man was in his seventies, but still had the ferocity with which he'd entered the job. That had been great for the time shortly after Voldemort, and during Ingot's reign and the Shadow Years (the name given to the time when the Man in the Shadows was in control of the world). But such vitriol was not needed all the time, and especially when one couldn't be sure the suspect was truly guilty. While coming down hard on crime during his first years had helped the new Ministry rebuild their country and the world, it wasn't the best option for the world all the time, and definitely not for recent years. As Lily's friend in the Ministry, Bellica Wallace, liked to say: Ianus was a very reliable person, but that wasn't always a positive trait. You could count on the negative aspects of his character to be reliable as well.

Ianus cleared his throat. "Trial in the case of _DMLE v. Scabra,_ fifteenth of December, 2036. Charges have been filed by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement against Mr. Ozymandias Scabra, resident at number fourteen Black Rd, apartment ten, Hinterton, West Sussex. Interrogators: Cellen Prima Ianus, Chief Prosecutor, Magical Law Consultation Office, Department of DMLE; Svetlana Ludetska Bones, Head of Magical Law Consultation Office, DMLE; Linus David Lovebrook, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, Office of the Minister for Magic."

Svetlana Bones gave Lily the smallest of smirks and the tiniest of winks. Lily gave a small smile back to her. Madam Bones had interviewed her just two weeks ago for the Ministry position, and had said she was very excited that Lily had accepted the position. She was going to be one of Lily's highest-ranking superiors at the start of the new year, when Lily began work at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement's Magical Consultation Office. The next step up would be her Aunt Hermione, who was the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and Aunt Hermione reported to the Minister of Magic, Dahlia de Rière. But for most anything, Lily would be reporting to Madam Bones. Or for specific cases as a prosecutor, she would report to the Chief Prosecutor, Cellen Ianus, who was currently listing the present personnel.

"Court Scribe, Jolene Ethel Ganlock, DMLE. Grievants: Gustav Lark; Lia Lark. Witness for the Defense, Lily Luna Potter; Potter and Quayle, Attorneys at Magical Law. Expert Witnesses: Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, Resident Forensics Analyst, Forensics and Forensic Psychology Office, DMLE; Nella Rhiannon Chelic, Head of Forensics, FFPO, DMLE. Representative of Rights, Ayano Aokuro, Alliance of Magical Countries and Territories."

Lily eyed the AMCAT representative. Normally, she would have to convince half of the jury. In this case, that was the three interrogators, and ten members of the Wizengamot. The full Wizengamot was not present, as the crime was not severe, so she only needed to convince seven people. But as Aplin had once said, if you could convince just one in particular—the AMCAT representative—you wouldn't have to convince anyone else.

She still needed to build up her case, though. She couldn't come out guns blazing about her client's rights to a fair trial being violated. She still had to make the case for Scabra being innocent of the crime in the first place. It was always much more suspicious, and much more likely to be seen as grasping at straws rather than a legitimate complaint, if one tried to come out against the process instead of the charges. Whether or not the prosecution muddled up the case, juries and even representatives from AMCAT liked to see that the person on trial was getting what they deserved, regardless of whether a little rule was bent. It was easier to convince people to vindicate a client on a technicality if the client deserved to be vindicated anyway.

The stone-carved law on the books was one thing. The law in interpretation and implementation by humans depended on a host of variables, because of the imperfect nature of humans: the moods of the jury, the affability of the defense attorney, the magical parentage of the accused, which side of the argument the interrogators had heard first, even the attractiveness of the plaintiffs and defendants. These could all affect the outcome, subconsciously or overtly. There were a thousand conditions that were hard to predict and generally couldn't be controlled, but some could be funneled if one was deft enough.

They wouldn't want Scabra getting away on a technicality if they still saw him as the suspect being questioned. They had to see him as an innocent man (or a man with a relatively high chance that he was innocent) who was mishandled by the people sworn to protect him, who could end up going to jail for nothing. And then they'd want him to escape this unfortunate situation as soon as possible.

"Let us begin," Ianus said. "With the charges."

Lily held up a hand closed into a fist, the tactic known as "calling stall," which let the court know she needed a few seconds for a conference. Ianus leaned back in his chair, clearly irritated that she was already asking for a pause.

Lily looked over to Scabra. " _Roll call is done, summary of charges begins,_ " she whispered. " _Remember, say no to the charges._ " She lowered her fist.

Ianus leaned forward again. "The charges against the accused are as follows: That he did break and enter into the home of the grievants, Gustav Lark and Lia Lark; that he inflicted damage upon their properties; that he abducted several of their personal artifacts, including but not limited to an entire safe containing nearly sixteen hundred Galleons' worth of Lark family heirlooms, and a box of jewelry known as Oozing Jewels. Will the accused please stand."

Scabra did so.

Ianus stared him down, and a multitude of creases blossomed on his forehead. "You are Ozymandias Scabra, of number fourteen Black Rd, apartment ten, Hinterton, West Sussex?"

"No," Scabra said.

Lily slammed her hand onto her face and lifted the other into the air in a fist to call stall again. "Those aren't the charges," she said patiently, not wanting to contribute any more to Scabra's nerves. "New strategy. Repeat the sentence in your head before answering. Say yes to the true things and no to the false things."

She lowered her fist; Ianus smirked. "So, you deny that you are Ozymandias Scabra, resident at number fourteen Black Rd, apartment ten, Hinterton, West Sussex?"

Scabra thought about it for a moment, apparently trying to remember whether Ianus had said "you are" or "you deny that you are." He looked at Lily, anxiety flooding into every feature. Subtly and calmly, Lily shook her head no.

"No," Scabra said.

"My client misheard the first question," Lily interjected before Ianus could begin again. "We request that you speak more slowly and clearly."

Ianus rolled his eyes. " _Very well,_ " he enunciated, drawing the phrase out longer than necessary. "So you are Ozymandias Scabra, resident at number fourteen Black Rd, apartment ten, Hinterton, West Sussex. Yes?"

Scabra took about five seconds, mouthing the sentence Ianus had just said. "Yes," he finally said.

"Did you or did you not break and enter into the unoccupied house of Gustav Lark and Lia Lark on the twenty-ninth of November at eleven twenty-one in the evening?"

Scabra took a few seconds to think again. "No," he answered. On a pause from the court, he added, "I did not."

"Did you or did you not damage the doors, alarm system, walls, and basement furniture belonging to the Larks?"

"No. I did not."

"Did you or did you not unlawfully seize artifacts belonging to Gustav Lark and Lia Lark?"

"I did not," Scabra said, more confidently.

"Did you employ, request, or coerce any individuals to perform any or all of the aforementioned acts on your behalf?"

Scabra cleared his throat, and glanced over at Lily. He glanced back and forth between Lily and Ianus, once again a deer in the _Lumos_ beam. The Wizengamot murmured amongst itself, clearly taking the wrong impression from Scabra's pause, and Lily intervened.

"I believe my client may be unclear as to the definition of the word _coerce,_ and missed the rest of the question while he tried to figure it out," Lily said.

Scabra nodded vigorously.

Ianus sighed, loudly enough to clearly communicate his frustration with Lily's client. "Did you hire, ask, or force anyone to do the things I said earlier?"

"No," Scabra said immediately.

"Do you know any details regarding the person or persons who _did_ commit these acts?"

"No."

The creases in Ianus's forehead increased. "Then what do you plead on account of the charges brought against you today?"

"Not guilty," Scabra announced.

"You plead not guilty on all charges?"

"Yes."

"And do you affirm—do you _agree_ —that you have no knowledge of these crimes, other than what you have said to the arresting officers and initial interrogators?"

"Yes."

"You may be seated."

Fearing he may have said something wrong, Scabra turned his head slightly so he could glance sideways at his defense attorney. Lily nodded encouragingly, and he let out a heavy breath as he took his seat.

"We will now begin interrogation," Ianus said, folding his fingers together. "As per AMCAT trial protocol, the witness for the defense shall be permitted to answer any question directed towards the accused."

Lily caught Scabra's eye. She subtly drew her pinched thumb and forefinger across her lips like a zipper— _zip your lips, I'll take this._ Scabra nodded once more.

"Is it true," Ianus said, glad to be addressing someone to whom he could speak normally, "that you, Ozymandias Scabra, were apprehended on charges of IID and DWI on the twelfth of September this year?"

"Yes," Lily said.

"And is it true that the Injuriously Intentioned Dueling and Dueling While Intoxicated took place following your argument with the victim regarding a perceived price gouging of a set of Oozing Jewels?"

"Yes."

"The Oozing Jewels in question were later purchased by the Larks. They were stolen from the Larks' house during the robbery of which you are accused, Mr. Scabra. They were later discovered _in your residence._ And still you maintain innocence of this crime?"

"Yes," Lily said. "Mr. Scabra did not take the jewels or otherwise arrange for them to be taken. He therefore believes that their appearance in his residence indicates that someone is seeking to lay blame on him for the incident."

"Indeed," Ianus snorted, "I'd say that given the evidence, the majority of Britain seeks to lay blame on him for the incident."

There was a chuckle around the court. Scabra looked like he was about to panic, but Lily kept calm. She knew how these things went. The Wizengamot often came in with a predisposition to one side of the argument. They were, after all, humans with opinions. In this case, Lily knew they were inclined to think Scabra was a bad person, so he was likely to have committed this crime. But their initial opinions shouldn't matter once she was done.

"In any case," Ianus pressed, "we have expert witnesses to further testify. The prosecution calls Scorpius Malfoy to—"

Ianus was interrupted when the door flew open, and James rushed into the room looking wide-eyed from adrenaline. He charmed himself dry, apparently having been out in the rain, and there was a large rip in the shoulder of his robes. There was definitely some sort of story there that Lily had to remember to ask him.

"Sorry!" James yelped, noticing every face in the courtroom aimed in his direction. "Sorry for the—I'll just—you can go on." He clambered up the steps so fast he nearly tripped, and stumbled his way to Harry and Ginny, sitting down next to them as Ginny scolded him for being late. He whispered something to her, and Ginny clapped a hand over her mouth.

Lily tore her eyes off of her family; whatever was happening there could wait. There was a man here who needed his daughter back, and that was the most important thing for her to be thinking about right now.

"The prosecution calls Scorpius Malfoy to the stand," announced Ianus, before there was another interruption.

There was a shuffle from the back. Scorpius stood, and descended towards the witness box, wearing a scarf and flat cap. Everything about the young blond was modest and reserved. Wherever he went, he liked to go without much fanfare. Lily supposed she could understand it. The nearly-white hair was like a beacon: Here is the son of a former Death Eater. So he was usually hiding that hair under a hat whenever Lily saw him.

For far too many people, it didn't matter that Scorpius and his father had helped bring down the Man in the Shadows. There was anti-Malfoy-extended-family rhetoric in papers and radio and daily conversations nonetheless. Some people craved an excuse to feel superior to the rich and powerful Malfoys, to feed their egos. They would take the chance no matter how outdated the opinion.

Scorpius, to his credit, had brushed most of it off. He had his measure of success already, as a forensics consult for the Ministry, and no one could deny that he was good at what he did. The whispers in the dark just made him even more determined to prove himself in the light.

"State your name and your connection to this trial," Ianus said.

"Scorpius Malfoy, Forensics Analyst for the Forensics and Forensic Psychology Office in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I evaluated the evidence left in the Lark household after the incident."

"And what were your findings?"

Scorpius cleared his throat and opened a file folder, pulling out a sheet of paper. Always wary that there were people willing to pounce on a single mistake and use it to hold themselves over him, he was extremely well-prepared for all of his cases. "Based on slight variations in the hues of walls in the house, not present in the family's memories of the previous day, we can determine that several spells were cast during the break-in. We know that these spells were Charms intended to ease the illicit seizure and transport of valuable goods during the break-in. From the Erracity style of the spellwork, which we gleaned from photobleaching on the walls, we can determine that the caster most likely attended Hogwarts between 1998 and 2017 while Theodora Thigby was Professor of Transfiguration by the style of the Transfigurations used, and between 2006 and 2031 when Paragost Plinky taught Charms. Thus the caster is very likely to have attended Hogwarts between 2006 and 2017. We can also judge that the caster of these spells was a lone male of between five feet five inches and six foot one inch. Mr. Scabra meets all of these criteria. The likelihood of someone meeting all of these descriptions is quite low, and I would recommend taking this into consideration when the jury renders their verdict."

"Thank you," Ianus said, clearly trying to suppress a smug grin. But if he thought it was going to be that easy…

"My testimony has concluded, and I would like to thank the court for hearing me," Scorpius said in a voice most mannerly. He bowed and returned to his seat.

"Does the defense," Ianus said, "have any evidence to present at this time?"

"We do," Lily said. "Ms. Rahman?"

Talisa Rahman stepped gracefully down from the high rows of the seating, though there were many unoccupied spaces closer to the front. She swished her blue silk dress behind her as she settled into the witness box. Seashell earrings dangled around her shapely face and almost vanished in her voluminous, natural-looking hair. Her sparkling but tired eyes landed on Lily as she waited for the questioning to begin.

Lily liked Talisa a lot, though she didn't know the woman that well. Talisa tended to be all business, showing up right on time and leaving similarly. Lily assumed that she had a lot of work to attend to with her expertise, especially given how tired she always seemed. She also moved slower than most of her associates, being a Squib, so it would make sense that she'd need more time to do things that Lily took for granted. However, Talisa had never once missed a deadline or seemed to let her exhaustion get to her. She was one of the hardest workers Lily knew. That was a very good attribute to have if you were in a line of work where lives were on that line.

Lily cleared her throat and stood again. "Ms. Rahman, please introduce yourself to the court." Most of them had seen Talisa before, but it was best to remind everyone of her credentials.

"My name is Talisa Rahman. I hold a doctorate in magical forensics from the Angus Buchanan College. I was head forensics analyst in the exoneration of Dodecus Tytezian, among other high-profile international cases. I examined the altered crime scene of the Lark residence as well as the unaltered memory of the Jureye and I am here to present evidence on behalf of the defense of Mr. Scabra."

When she spoke the phrase _altered crime scene_ , Lily saw Ianus's eyes pop slightly further open. His smugness began to vanish as he realized Lily's plan of attack, and she could practically see him formulating a counterattack as Talisa finished her introduction.

"Can you tell us," Lily said, "what this is?"

She flicked her wand at the court Pensieve below the court scribe's desk. From the unaltered memory of the crime scene, a three-dimensional footprint rose in blue effigy and began rotating.

"This is a scuffmark from which the full footprint was recreated," Talisa stated. "From the kitchen. It was not present in Mr. Lark's memory of his kitchen from the night before."

Ianus rolled his eyes. Lily ignored him. "What size shoe," she pressed, "left the scuffmark?"

"The mark was from a size nine, in men's sizes," Talisa said. "Mr. Scabra wears size ten and a half. The other members of the household wear, in men's sizes, eleven, seven, seven, and seven and a half."

"And the mark was definitely left following dinner the night of the break-in."

"That is correct."

"Apologies for the brevity of your testimony after bringing you all the way here this morning," Lily said, "but thank you. That will be all."

"Now, hold on," Ianus jumped in. "I have a few questions for our expert witness here."

"I am happy to answer," Talisa responded, settling back into her seat.

"Ms. Rahman, how was the mark analyzed?"

"The initial forensics sweep noted the scuffmark," Talisa answered, as calm and direct as always. "They recreated the footprint. The memory shows the recreation, and through that memory and several others I matched the print as a men's size nine."

"That," Ianus grunted, "is quite a few independent steps where information could be lost or distorted. Isn't this prone to error?"

"It's prone to error at exactly the level of the people the Ministry hired to take records of the crime scene," Talisa said. "As those same people also supplied the evidence in Mr. Malfoy's testimony on your behalf, I assume you have confidence in their abilities?"

Lily smirked.

"Yes, well, it is still an outside party's interpretation of the original party's work," Ianus insisted, though he looked more than a little nettled. "So there is still possibility for misinterpretation between analysis…"

"I would wager," Talisa interjected, "that when the forensics team recreated a footprint of size nine, they did not intend this to communicate that it was a size ten and a half foot which left the print."

"Thank you, Ms. Rahman," Lily said. "Is that all, Mr. Ianus?"

Ianus waved his arm.

"Once more, we appreciate your time," Lily said. "Now, Mr. Ianus… I'd like to address your concerns that there is a possibility for misinterpretation, with my team's research being based on what we were able to see through the altered crime scene and only the memory of the unaltered crime scene. Believe me… this was a concern of ours as well." She took a deep breath and checked her posture as she dove in for the kill. "In fact, we would have _loved_ to have sought analysis with the original crime scene. For example, it is possible to see if any hairs left at the crime scene were from a person under Polyjuice influence. If, for example, Mr. Scabra impersonated a member of the family to gain access and this is why the shoe size was wrong, then some of the hairs in the house would have tested positive for Polyjuice. However, our counsel was not granted the opportunity to investigate the unaltered crime scene.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, please take note that Mr. Malfoy's forensics team completed analysis before I and my team took the position as Mr. Scabra's counsel. This, of course, is not illicit activity. But then, rather than leave the site untouched for the defense's forensics team to complete their own independent analysis, Chief Prosecutor Ianus opted to cut the tape and afford the site back to the Lark family so they could return to their house. I'm sure this was a well-intentioned gesture, but it deprived our forensics team of the ability to perform such a test. One performed in the altered crime scene is no longer admissible as evidence.

"Thus the only verifiable analysis of that crime scene was completed by the prosecution. The entity with a vested interest in convicting Mr. Scabra issued the only forensics sweep. And it seems that they happened to miss, or else failed to mention upon reporting to us here, a detail that could have immediately exonerated him. The prosecution failed to allow the defense to independently investigate a crucial section of the evidence—and then left out the full analysis of the evidence when it didn't fit the narrative they wanted to push. So the court's understanding of the full picture of the evidence has been skewed in favor of the prosecution. As I am sure the Wizengamot knows, this happens to be against AMCAT protocol—and, I could even say, _illegal._ Not to mention that it has led to an innocent man standing trial, wasting everyone's time and money, while the real culprit roams free."

Murmurs throughout the courtroom—Lily had been here enough times to know that this was a good thing, and she relaxed slightly. Her eyes drifted naturally over to Chief Prosecutor Ianus, who seemed ready to leap out of his chair and strangle her.

The furious look that Ianus gave Lily every time she was in court always boosted her confidence. He had given her a moderately irritated look back in the very first trial in which she'd provided defense. Since then, his rage against her had only grown, due to the number of times she had embarrassed him. Now it was a veritable dictionary death glare, and she loved to drink it in. It meant she was doing her job well.

Though she didn't quite understand what made him so upset. If the people he was prosecuting were innocent, as she often proved, he should be pleased that his department wasn't arresting the wrong people. Instead, he gave the impression that he'd arrest a hundred innocent civilians if it made Lily look bad in the process.

Maybe he wouldn't be long for the position, since his department had now become almost notorious for their suspects being mistakenly charged and turning out innocent. Lily hoped he would step down, for many reasons. The largest of those reasons was because she and Bonita were closing the doors of Potter and Quayle and he would probably continue to prosecute innocent people, and might succeed without Lily in the way. The next largest was the fact that in less than a week, he would be her superior when she started work at the Ministry. As much as she enjoyed the death glares now, she really wasn't looking forward to seeing them on a daily basis from her boss.

For now, though, she happily absorbed his wrathful glare and responded with a smile. She turned to the AMCAT Representative of Rights, Ayano Aokuro, and addressed her directly.

"I would in fact like to submit a complaint under Article 6-2b of the Alliance Charter, the Equal Echelon Clause," Lily said, staying in swift stride. "I would move to have this case dismissed on grounds of a violation to my client's right to a fair trial, pursuant to the denial of opportunity for an equal echelon of expert witnesses as called by the prosecution. Furthermore, I would expect that this decision can take effect immediately, as I think we can all agree that neither criterion is present to negate the clause. The arrest was made almost immediately, so the crime scene was not held for an unreasonable length of time prior to its deconstruction. There also is _not_ a compelling overabundance of evidence to support a conviction despite the clause, as the validity of nearly all of the evidence has now been called seriously into question. There has been a serious failure on the part of the prosecution to bring a case here, even if they hadn't egregiously violated my client's rights."

She saw her parents' faces growing more and more impressed, and she swelled even further. Distinctly, she saw James mouth the words " _Bloody hell!_ "

Ayano nodded for Lily to continue. After a quick glance at Scabra's suddenly optimistic face for even more encouragement, she did.

"The prosecution has called an expert witness to speak on a piece of forensic evidence. By Article 6, section 2, the defendant has a right to hire or request a team to investigate the same evidence being assessed by the prosecution. And by subsection b, the defendant's team must be presented with the opportunity to access that unaltered evidence, with a grace period of between twenty-four and seventy-two hours after the initial meeting with his legal representation. The crime scene was altered only a few hours after I agreed to represent Mr. Scabra, and more than twenty-four hours _before_ my first meeting with him. If _this_ is not a clear and blatant violation, I don't know why we have the Alliance Charter at all."

"Classy," Ianus spat, "real classy, Miss Potter. No evidence to support you, so you go for the technicality. Truly superior legal work there."

"On the contrary," Lily said calmly, "the reason we don't have any evidence to offer you is entirely owed to the 'technicality' of you obliterating the proof before anyone outside the Ministry got to have a look at it."

If she could have taken a picture of Ianus's face at that moment, she might have framed it in her new office. The infuriation on his face today perfectly summarized the past two years of Lily running legal circles around his prosecution.

"Which is precisely why I suggest that Article 6-2b shows you have violated my client's rights," Lily concluded. "Miss Aokuro, I'll be happy to answer any other questions, if you have them?"

Ayano shook her head. "I have none," she said. "As far as I can see, this trial is concluded. Mr. Scabra will be awarded damages pursuant to the Article of Restitutions for his inconvenience at the hands of Chief Prosecutor Ianus and the British Ministry. We apologize for your mistreatment today. And we sternly remind the Department of Magical Law Enforcement not to take shortcuts with legal rights in the future."

One could easily tell who was new to a courtroom. The Wizengamot stood immediately, knowing the trial was over and having much better things to attend to. They wasted no time in making their exit, most grumbling about wasted time on the way out. Those who had not seen many trials—such as Ginny, Hugo, Rose's boyfriend, and a few interns scattered around the courtroom—were looking around with confusion at how abruptly the trial had screeched to a halt. Searching the room again, Lily saw her good friend in the Ministry, Bellica Wallace, pumping a fist enthusiastically, despite her employer having lost. Next to Bellica, another very important figure in Lily's life was unexpectedly present. O. Cyrus Haynsly, an investor in her research into the Third Realm, tipped his hat at Lily from across the room. She had a meeting with him later, but she hadn't known he'd planned on attending the trial.

Lily broke her gaze away from the audience to see that Scabra was still sitting in his chair, slightly stunned. She clapped a hand on his shoulder. "You are free to go," she said with a small smile.

Like a switch upon hearing those words, Scabra's manner clicked back several days, now that he had evaded danger. He smirked and put his feet up on the table. "Yeah, good, thanks. What's the quickest way out of here, sugar? I'm not spending a second longer than I need to down here, it's really cramping my style."

Lily tightened her grip on Scabra's shoulder, and he winced. She stared into his eyes.

"You can drop the act," Lily sighed. "I've seen you at your most vulnerable. Stop being so cocky. You got very lucky. Yes, you were innocent—but the evidence was still stacked against you and you got very lucky. Don't put yourself into this situation again. If you keep up this tough-guy charade, people are going to keep trying to knock you back down a few pegs. You stuck with it on the Oozing Jewels confrontation and got arrested and taken away from your daughter. Then as a result, this jury only knew you from the ass-hat farce you put on, and they were ready to convict you on it. My advice, if you _really_ don't want to spend any more seconds down here than you need to? Don't act like this never happened—act like it's going to happen _again_ if you don't make some big changes in your life, starting right now."

Scabra's smirk faded again. He looked in the other direction and nodded.

"The quickest way out is the elevator we came in on," Lily said. "Go back to your daughter, Mr. Scabra, and don't thank me, because I haven't helped you; I've just followed the law. You're the only one who can help yourself."

When he sensed she was finished, Scabra stood and strode out of the room without a moment's delay.

Lily shrugged and turned to see James and her parents waving excitedly. She headed up the steps to meet them.

"Lily, I'm… awestruck," her mother said after a tight hug. "I knew you were fierce, but I didn't know how professionally you translated that into the courtroom!"

Lily blushed. "Anyone could have done that with the same information, really."

"You made Ianus freak," James laughed. "Good. I hate him."

"I think everyone does," Lily said. "Which really begs the question of how he got there, if he's neither likeable nor very good at his job."

"Is that how these things usually go?" Harry chuckled. "I haven't much enjoyed being down here, given my first experience in this room… But this is a lot more exciting than I assumed most trials were."

"Usually, I'm just working to reduce sentence or something like that," Lily said. "This time, I knew I could go for gold."

Bellica stepped over to Lily and extended a hand, which Lily shook. She gestured to James. "Have I missed the story of how that happened?" she asked, eyeing James's robes, which he had dried but which were still torn and burned in several areas. James liked to wear his battle scars for a while.

"No, I haven't told it yet," James said. "It was crazy. These pure-blooded bigots are targeting that new up-and-coming company, Spellbound. They smashed all the windows and threw in a container of potion that spewed toxic gas, trying to poison everyone in Spellbound's Wales-based office building. Apparently this wasn't the first incident, but it was the worst so far."

"Why would purists attack Spellbound?" Bellica asked.

"Apparently they're coming out with some interesting new product that they're claiming will 'give Muggles a taste of magic'. They're being purposefully vague about it. But I think it's something that will bring the Muggle and Wizarding worlds closer… which of course, a lot of people take issue with."

"Catch any of the culprits?" Bellica asked. "What I'm asking is, is the rest of my afternoon going to suck?"

"Not yet. They were careful. Probably won't be the last we see of them."

Lily turned her head and noticed Haynsly waiting for her at the ground level, and she said a hasty goodbye. Her friends and family would be around many other times. But she wasn't about to keep her billionaire investor waiting.

"I didn't know you were going to be here!" Lily said as she approached.

Haynsly opened his arms wide and encased Lily in a hug; he was never afraid to show his warmth. "I'm glad I attended! Quite the experience. You're a true talent."

"Thank you, Mr. Haynsly. Is this the first trial you've attended?"

"I'd attended one other," Haynsly said. "I had a complaint against a fellow businessman who tried to cheat me out of my earnings with a company we both partially owned. I'm very glad for the DMLE. It made sure I had a fair shot to make my fortune."

He nodded to Lily.

"I'm glad I'm able to give you a fair shot at _your_ dream."


	5. LR2: Dreamers and Dreamboats

_Lily Reminisces_

 _Dreamers and Dreamboats_

Saturday, March 12, 2033

~O~

The cork was blasted into the ceiling, and a stream of bubbles was loosed. They floated around the room, and as they popped, sounds of screaming monkeys echoed around the small room. Lily laughed aloud, already somewhat tipsy, as James poured her a glass of Chimpagne.

"To 'Potter and Quayle'," James announced proudly, lifting his glass. "To my little sister's first law firm! May it live a long, happy life, free of the Ministry, and may it let its clients do the same!"

Lily beamed. "To Potter and Quayle," she said, and clinked the glass against her brother's.

James downed most of his glass. "Do you think I should have invited Bonita?" he asked. "Also, do you think it's weird that Mom and Dad named us after a husband and wife, considering we're brother and sister?"

Lily downed her entire glass. "Bonita and I already had a toast yesterday," she said. "This is brother-sister time. And, on that note, yes to your second question."

James grinned and refilled her glass. "So, you're all grown up. You're going to be big and important. You're going to be putting away the people I bring in, now that I'm Head Auror!"

"No," Lily laughed. "I'm actually going to be _defending_ the people you bring in."

"Wait, really?" James stared at her. "Like, to get them set free?"

"To reduce their sentences where applicable. And to get them set free if I can—if they deserve to be set free. But don't worry. I get to choose the clients I represent, whereas if I were a public defender I wouldn't get to do that. So if you brought in, say, Obydin Auchland… We could choose not to defend him."

"Thank Merlin," James chuckled. His smile faded. "Wait, but does that mean there are people who DO have to defend people like Auchland?"

"Yes, public defenders," Lily said. "Everyone has the right to a trial and an attorney. So we have to give that to everyone. Even the Auchlands of the world."

James crinkled his nose. "Really, though? Does _everyone_ have the right to having someone fight hard on their behalf to free them? Even the Auchlands of the world?"

"Yes," Lily insisted. "In fact, the idea that some people might not be deserving of basic human rights is the very belief that leads to people becoming Auchlands."

"I don't think so," James argued. "I think there're exceptions. Like, every decent person wants more tolerance. But we can't tolerate intolerance. Can we?"

"It's a tough argument," Lily sighed. "One that's gone on for a long time."

James lifted his glass again. "Thank goodness you don't have to worry about it, though! To my little loiter. Er—my sister—little lawyer sister!"

"What did you have before coming here?" Lily laughed.

"Just a bit of hard cider."

"And by 'a bit', you mean…"

James giggled. "Like… three or four? Hey, it was Dennis's 30th birthday."

Lily groaned. "You'd better not Apparate home. Take the Knight bus."

"That's my professional sister, being all… professional and so!" James said proudly. "But wow. Seriously. You're gonna be running your own law firm. I just can't wrap my head around that. I've run the Auror Office for two months, and that's just a _part_ of a firm, the DMLE, and I have a lot of people working with me. I can't imagine being responsible for every part of something."

"It's going to be a lot of work," Lily agreed. "I'm ready for it."

"Are you?"

James was peering at her with intent to bring up the obvious. "Lily… Are you going to keep up with the Third Realm research stuff?"

"I can handle it," Lily said confidently. She might even have said it a little too forcefully, and worried that her response would be mistaken for an emotional one.

"I believe you if you believe it," James said. "But you've got to keep an eye on it. You have to be honest with yourself if things get too busy to work on your side projects for a while."

"Finding our lost brother," Lily said, calmly but forcefully, "is not a _side project._ "

James sighed.

"I consider my career and my family to be equally important," Lily said, "and I can and will make the appropriate time for both, without letting the other down."

"Again," James said, "I believe you."

"Why'd you ask?"

James looked down at his thumbs. He twiddled them for a moment before responding.

"I know you're trying to be annoying about my having asked so that I don't keep asking in the future," he said. "But I'm going to. Okay? We'll be keeping an eye on you."

"Don't," Lily snapped.

James put his hands up in the air in an _I surrender_ fashion, and then returned to his drink.

They sipped silently for a few moments. James eventually made the attempt to restart the conversation.

"So," he said. "Crazy stuff, this Three-Realms business. The physical world being the First Realm, the Abyssal Vortex being the Second Realm… and Albus is apparently in the Third?"

"Not apparently," Lily said. "He is."

"So you've said the Third Realm is, like, the realm of emotions."

"Yes."

"I'm wondering, though, what's _in_ the Third Realm? Are there just emotions floating around? Granted, I didn't really understand what was in the Second Realm, but I'm really curious as to what one would be… bumping into, if one was floating through the Realm."

"A lot of people guess, but no one knows for sure," Lily said.

"Well, obviously," James said. "If the Third Realm was well-documented, it would mean that there was an easier way to view or enter it, and you'd have started with a lot more information than you did. I'm wondering what the best guesses are, or what people have mathematically proven or whatever you did to prove he was there in the first place."

"Well, the first thing we'd expect to find there is Albus," Lily said. "Probably Ephreneia and her brother, too—I've told you enough about them. As for _native_ inhabitants of the Third Realm, that's a very good question. Some people think there are some creatures, like boggarts and Dementors, which may have their origins in the Third Realm, due to their association with emotion. One thing that people are pretty sure came from the Third Realm was the Moseidolon."

"The what?"

"Also known as the Dreamboat?"

"The what?"

Lily flicked her wand. A book zoomed from a shelf across the room; Lily lunged out to catch it right before it crashed into James's head.

"Maybe I might have had a few before you got here," she giggled, opening the book. "Here… The Moseidolon is what lent the Muggles stories about 'ghost ships'. It's an ancient vessel that used to sail all the oceans. No one has ever seen its pilot, if the ship even has one. It hasn't been around in centuries, so not many people know about it now. But back when it roamed, every witch and wizard heard stories of it."

"What does it do?"

"It takes people," Lily explained. "Well, not just people. Any creature in a distraught emotional state feels an urge to board this ship when it appears. A dog that just lost its owner is just as likely to board the ship as a person who just lost their lover. The ship whisks you away and you spend the rest of your days in a permanent daydream of pure joy. Hence the ship's other name, the 'Dreamboat', lent its name to a hunky guy who whisks a woman away to live in a magical fantasy."

"Or a hunky woman," James chuckled. "Don't discriminate."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Well, like most dreamboat people, the ship isn't as great as it sounds. Albeit painlessly, you are slowly devoured. Now, it's true that the rest of your life is filled with nothing but happiness, but you enter oblivion afterwards instead of any afterlife, as your soul powers the ship."

"What drove it away?"

"International law in the 1600s made it explicitly illegal to enter, or allow others to enter, the Moseidolon. Police forces would track the ship and seize anyone who tried to enter. Without a power source, the ship faded away."

"Was that response necessary? Maybe some people just… wanted to be happy."

"The ship takes advantage of a temporary emotional state and affects you for the rest of eternity," Lily said. "If you board the ship, it's not you whose doing the boarding. It's depression, anxiety, desperation… A brain not in a state to make the right decisions. They needed help, not the empty promises of the Moseidolon that would destroy the rest of their lives."

James twiddled his thumbs against his glass. Lily narrowed her eyes; she knew him well enough that this indicated he was trying to phrase something he thought she didn't want to hear.

"What," Lily said.

James looked directly into her eyes.

"Lily, I feel like the search for Albus… is your Moseidolon."

Lily straightened her back. " _What?_ "

James grimaced. "Lil… you're in an emotional state that is really affecting your reasoning. You're not the best equipped to be deciding whether this is worth it. And I'm just so… We're all just so worried. That you're going to spend the rest of your life chasing this as a way to channel your depression about Albus, and it'll destroy you just like the empty promises of the Mosey… Moses…" He scratched his head. "Like the empty promises of the Dreamboat."

Lily shook her head. "Stop it. You're trying to sound all profound, but you're profoundly failing."

"I'm serious, Lil," James said, returning to the nickname he'd called her as a child, indicating he was thinking of her like she was a kid again. "This is eating your soul like the Dreamboat. And if you're going to walk yourself into this… we may have to drag you out of it until you're in a better state."

"If you bring this up one more time," Lily warned, "I am not going to speak to you for a month."

He did, and she didn't.


End file.
